Indiantelevision.com Team

(16 May 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: With news channels and news sources growing companies have to be wary more than ever about negative news. Its impact can be damaging if corrective action is not done soon enough.

One way to counter such action is to have product placement in content like television shows.

Tam recently did a study in Mumbai on the effect of negative news. The TG was males 24-30 SEC A and the aim is to act as a starting point to measure the impact of news. Nielsen organised its annual client conference that focusses on the developments happening in the Retail and Consumer segment. The Nielsen team presented papers that revealed the changes happening in the retail evolution in India . In this year’s Nielsen annual conference, for the first time, the changes in media were also going to be captured via specific presentations from Tam.

Tam's Siddhartha Mukherjee however points out that just having a placement in a show is not enough. "The brand needs to link to the storyline. It needs to be linked to a turning point in the show or it will not be relevant. At the same time authentication is important. The brand needs to have editorial space in newspapers and on television where details in terms of facts and analysis are featured."

Mukherjee notes that often brands use celebrities. This works if the consumer involvement with the brand is high. If it is not then the celebrity will not matter. Also the brand needs to keep in mind as to how important its brand image is to its TG in deciding on action to counter negative news.

In terms of the kind of brands that are most affected by negative news he says that products that have a personal consumer connect like financial products are most vulnerable. The key factors that drive the impact of negative news are prior knowledge of the brand, importance of the brand in the consumers life and commitment.

The commitment factor is the most important. The more committed a consumer is towards a brand the more he / she will offer counter arguments to negative news. In fact this might help the brand get into an ideal zone.

Out of the four zones this is the best one to be in. In this zone the consumer is so committed that the media that is carrying the negative news might get a negative image. The highly volatile zone is a place no brand would want to be in as sustained marketing is needed here. Sales will definitely see a decline.

From research Tam found that negative news is seen as more diagnostic in nature versus positive news. Also the source is important. Newspapers are perceived to be a better place to get news from vis-à-vis television as the fourth estate is less likely to be biased. Not surprisingly Public Relations (PR) content has been on the rise. Tam is working with PRCAI to form a PR currency measurement system.

Also at the conference research users offered feedback on the efficacy of the mechanism. Coca Cola India's Venkatesh Kini says that research should never be used as a crutch. It is a tool to help with the decision making process. Coca Cola he notes relies on Nielsen more than most firms.

Interestingly research can be a two edged sword. When Coca Cola was created over 100 years ago not much research was done. Many decades later Coca Cola in the US tried to improve the product. Lots of money was spent on research. The net result was that when the 'improved' product was launched it lasted for six months before the company decided to go back to the old flavour.

ITC Foods' Hemant Malik notes that sometimes a brand custodian has to go with his / her gut instinct. He gives the example of Bingo. The ads for this snack did not get a positive response from the test audience but he nevertheless decided to go with it as he felt that the communication would have a positive long term impact.

At the discussion it was also stressed that marketers need to move from touch point marketing to engagement marketing. It is fine to engage customers at different touchpoints but how well are you engaging them? Research also needs to look at post launch and not just at pre launch. Does anyone know why many customers are not loyal to one brand of soap? was a question posed. One needs to what what triggers brand loyalty and what conditions must be met for customer satisfaction to happen.

Brands also need to find out as soon as posible how many customers have been trapped into using a product. If there are many then it is bad for the long term. Often a marketer can find out whether a communication is working simply by keeping his / her eyes and ears open. The example of A.R. Rehman's tune for Airtel was given. Within a week of the campaign breaking cars were using that tune to reverse.